About Us

Military Emergency Medical Services and Disaster Medicine Fellowship Curriculum

The fellow will work closely with the fellowship director and other EMS faculty to learn the principles of both military and civilian EMS system design, operations, training, equipment, receiving facilities and communications. The fellow will have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of EMS educational and administrative activities under the direction of the faculty. In addition, the fellow will participate in EMS scholarly and research activities. A few of the rotations are decribed briefly below but the fellowship is positioned to flex the schedule to suit the needs of an individual fellow’s interests and the evolving needs of the military service sponsoring the training.

  1. San Antonio Fire Department:
    The San Antonio Fire Department is a large, urban, fire-based EMS system in which the fellow will spend the majority of their first year working. Faculty will instruct the fellows on all aspects of medical direction during this rotation as it forms the foundation of the fellows’ education.
  2. Schertz EMS:
    The Schertz EMS Program is a municipal third service giving fellows insight into differences between EMS program types and the unique challenges they face.
  3. AirLife:
    San Antonio AirLife is a helicopter EMS program operating out of 5 bases in South Texas centered around San Antonio. The fellow will participate in scene and interfacility transports as an observer during this rotation.
  4. Tactical EMS:
    During this rotation the fellow will attend the Basic Tactical Operation Medical Support course at Cypress Creek EMS, plan and execute the EM residents’ emergency medicine exercise(EMX), serve as medical directors for the Alamo Area Joint Tactical Medic course and delve into advanced topics of medical direction for tactical operations.
  5. US Army Institute of Surgical Research Joint Trauma System:
    USAISR/JTS provides an excellent research base for the fellow to explore their own research interests in prehospital and battlefield medicine while mastering the core elements of developing and executing translational research and performance improvement.
  6. Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council:
    STRAC rotation during the second year is designed to educate the fellow on community level planning and collaboration of various stakeholders all working to improve the health care system on a regional level.
  7. Service Specific Medic Training:
    The fellow will spend several months of the second year with their service specific medic training on Joint Base San Antonio, to gain appreciation and in depth knowledge on all aspects of training future medics.
  8. Overview of Didactic Activities:
    1. Grand Rounds will occur once a month and feature 4 hours of didactics delivered by faculty, outside speakers, and residents.
    2. Journal article reviews occur once a quarter and focus on a specific topic or controversy in prehospital care both civilian and military.
    3. Informal didactics occur on the other weeks consisting of short lectures delivered by medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty to cover core curriculum topics not addressed in Grand Rounds.
  9. Master of Public Health degree:
    1. Fellows will have an opportunity to earn a Master of Public Health degree through the University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio Regional Campus if they choose.
    2. Given the fellowship lasts two years, there is ample time to do the course work required for a MPH degree.
    3. This is an optional educational activity and, if selected, may come with an increased service obligation to be determined by the sponsoring service.
Need to Update Your Information in DEERS? Click Here